Sensormatic Confirms Large Loss For Quarter

As forewarned a month-and-a-half ago, Sensormatic Electronics Corp. in Boca Raton said Friday that it sustained $10.4 million in third-quarter losses resulting from heavy write-offs and loss reserves.

The company`s results stemmed directly from $15.2 million in write-offs and reserve increases ordered in February by Sensormatic`s new chief executive, Allen J. Dusault, who became a company officer Jan. 21 after having been a director since 1974.

A year ago, the maker of anti-shoplifting systems earned $1.43 million, or 5 cents a share, during the third quarter. The latest quarterly loss comes to 37 cents a share. The quarter ended Feb. 28.

Revenues, meanwhile, rose only slightly to $19.86 million, compared with $19.79 million the same quarter a year earlier. For the first nine months of Sensormatic`s current fiscal year, revenues fell 8 percent from $70 million in 1985 to $64.7 million in 1986.

Dusault said revenue is down primarily because of fewer sales of the company`s SensorVision closed-circuit television systems, which monitor store activity.

``A portion of a major order of this product line was shipped and reflected in the prior year`s nine-month revenues,`` Dusault said.

On Feb. 13, Sensormatic stunned the investment community by announcing the $15.2 million debit against equity capital. More than $12 million of that came from write-offs for discontinued inventory and for equipment and deferred charges related to the manufacture of those products.

At the same time, loss reserves were raised by $2.7 million to guard against questionable accounts receivable.